Specialist services for children and young people

This specialist social work team works with children and young people aged 0-18 who:

• have a complex disability
• are permanent residents in Walsall borough (including children in care placed out of area)

The team offers a social work assessment and care planning service. It's based at the Goscote Centre  and located within the All Age Disability Hub.

The Deaf and hearing support team are a small team of:

• qualified teachers of Deaf children and young people
• specialist learning support practitioners 

We support children and young people from birth and throughout their education who have:

• unilateral deafness (in one ear)
• bilateral deafness (in both ears)
• mild, moderate, severe or profound deafness
• conductive deafness (of the outer or middle ear)
• sensorineural deafness (of the inner ear)
• mixed deafness (sensorineural and conductive)
• auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder

Support for families

We offer several pathways of support. They include advice and support at home, or in early years settings such as childminders, two-year-old provisions in primary schools, nursery schools and private day care settings.

To make sure your child gets the right support we work with:

• Walsall Child Development Centre
• speech and language therapy
• cccupational therapy
• physiotherapy
• paediatricians, health visitors and other colleagues across Children's Services 

Support for professionals

The team can give advice about:

• creating an inclusive curriculum and learning environment
• the consultation process for identified children (with parents' consent) where practitioners have evidenced the Graduated Approach as specified in the Code of Practice (2015) including play-based assessments
• funding pathways and the EHCNA (education, health and care needs assessment) process
• support for children, parents and staff through direct teaching, modelling techniques, strategies and signposting
• training and access to SENCo forums

Statutory assessment

The service provides psychological assessment and advice to the council when they request this as part of an education, health and care needs assessment.

As part of this work, we aim to gather information from you about your child’s needs, listen to your and your child’s views, speak with staff who know them well, and undertake assessments with the young person.  This helps us understand their strengths and difficulties and make recommendations about the help they require. 

Traded services

We offer traded sessions to all nurseries, schools and colleges in Walsall.

The team applies psychology creatively in educational settings who choose to buy in our service.  We help schools meet the needs of young people as part of a staged approach called the Graduated Response by advising them on strategies and additional approaches. If a school or other setting wants us to work with them to help your child, we can negotiate a range of work. This could include:

• listening to the views of children and young people, and their parents/carers
• carrying out a range of activities to assess the needs of children and young people
• consulting with relevant adults to support children and young people as part of joint problem-solving
• providing advice and training to schools, parents and other professionals
• undertaking interventions or direct work with young people

Portage is an educational support service for pre-school children (0-3) with profound, complex and multiple learning difficulties and their families.

Your child can have an Initial EYSEN Assessment to establish whether the Portage service is appropriate for your child following a recommendation by Walsall Child Development Centre. 

You can find out more about portage from the National Portage Association:

• What is portage?
• The portage model
• Portage principles

We provide advice and information to parents and teachers of children and young people who are blind or have a vision impairment.

We help:

• teach and support children and young people with a visual impairment of all ages and abilities
• assess children’s vision
• support and advise on the use of specialist equipment and train in the use of low vision aids
• provide Braille and enlarged or modified learning materials
• provide independence and mobility training
• teach touch typing and specialist software skills
• teach and support the development of social skills, self-advocacy and positive self-image

We also liaise with other professionals and organisations such as social care, healthcare and RNIB.

Our learning disability community service is for people over 18 years of age who:

• have a diagnosed learning disability
• are unable to access mainstream health services effectively
• require access to a specialist health team

The service enables patients to access their physical and mental heath care in a person centred way which meets their individual needs as far as possible. 

To find out more about learning disabilities visit Mencap – What is a Learning Disability

The learning disability screening tool is a short questionnaire that can help identify if a child or young person aged between 6 and 18 may have a learning disability.

Find out more about the NHS Learning Disability Screening Tool for children and young people.

Walsall Child Development Service (WCDS) offers joined-up health support for children from birth to 5 years old. They work closely with education and social care teams. WCDS provides:

• one-stop referral point for community health services for children with special needs and disabilities
• formation of a Team Around the Child for children with complex needs / life-limiting needs who require three or more health services
• multi-agency autism assessment

The service supports children and young people aged 10 to 18 years who:

• are on the periphery of offending
• have committed an offence and have either:
  • received a disposal from the police, or
  • a statutory community order, or
  • are remanded in/sentenced to custody

YJS is a multi-agency partnership, working closely with police, social care, education, CAMHS and probation service. The team focuses on young peoples' well-being and provide opportunities to change thinking and behaviour around offending. Child focused plans are developed to support young people to stay in school and achieve. The service can also provide access to training and employment opportunities. YJS support victims of crime too.

Works in partnership with children/young people and their families, other therapies, local authority service providers and educational establishments.

Find out more about speech and language therapy, including contact details

Walsall CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) is a specialist mental health service, commissioned to provide interventions to those children, young people and their families who are experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties. We currently support young people up to the age of 18 with a GP registered in the Walsall area.

Every Mind Matters is a mental wellbeing advice resource.

WYSA is an AI wellbeing coach that has been commissioned by Black Country Health NHS Foundation Trust.

It gives you a safe, non-judgmental space where you can talk about anything and everything that's bothering you. Aimed at young people aged 11 to 25, you can download in your app store.

The Young Minds website is full of advice and information to give young people the tools to look after their mental health. There is a great bank of resources to support children and young people with SEND with their mental health.

This the dedicated team for health visiting and school nursing for SEND. We offer a range of support such as:

• workshops
• groups
• parent and child sessions
• drop-in clinics
• 1 to 1 targeted interventions for children and their families

We work closely with the child development centre and also deliver the core school nursing offer to special school, pupil referral units and mainstream schools with specialist resource provisions.

School nurses within this team support all children and young people with additional or complex health needs. School nurses provide a vital and unique link between school, home, and community.  They work closely with education, social care and other healthcare professionals, and support children to access education.

Find out more about school nursing and contact details.

We work with children presenting with impaired independence and/or participation in one or more of the following areas: 

• self-care tasks (such as feeding, washing, dressing, grooming)
• tool use (such as pencils, scissors, rulers)
• play/leisure activities
• pre-writing skills and/or recording written information
• access to their school environment due to physical difficulties 

 The difficulties must be out of line with the child/young person’s overall level of development and not a result of behavioural/ emotional difficulties.

Find out more about occupational therapy and contact details.

We treat babies, children and young people 0-19 years of age with: 

• significant delay in their gross motor development
• neuro-developmental, neuro-muscular or neurological disorders which are significantly affecting gross motor development, balance and posture (such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophies / atrophies, spina bifida)
• neonatal follow-up
• degenerative conditions
• toe walkers (not part of the autistic spectrum

Find out more about physiotherapy and contact details.

The CCN service aims to avoid hospital admissions, reduce length of stay in hospital and facilitate a smooth discharge home.

The care may be provided at home, school or community setting. The service aims to give support and advice to parents and carers providing supportive integrated holistic care and effective partnership working.

We see children up to 18 years old with a nursing need such as:

• naso-gastric/gastrostomy feeding
• injections
• wound care
• oncology (cancer)
• long term conditions
• complex conditions
• life limiting conditions

We do a hospital at home service such as intravenous medication to facilitate early discharge. The CCN team train parents and carers (but not care companies). We undertake asthma, eczema and constipation clinics. With the exception of clinics, all children we see must be registered with a Walsall GP.

All children have a named CCN but will be seen by all of the nurses during their care as we don't all work every day.

Find out more about community children's nursing and contact details.

The team provides assessment, diagnosis, management and treatment to children and young people where there are concerns about neurodevelopmental problems such as:

• developmental delay
• learning difficulties
• autism
• ADHD
• neurological disability, such as cerebral palsy
• other physical disabilities
• other specific long-term conditions

The service is delivered in community settings across Walsall. It enables children to achieve their optimum health and reduce the impact of illness on their health and wellbeing.

This service is for families of children on a waiting list to be seen by a paediatric health service.

Parents/carers can come and chat to other parents and find out what additional support is available across the partnership.

Find our more about the network, including the time and location of meetings.